We are delighted to announce that the International Workshop on “The Meaning of the Wave Function” will be held at Shanxi University, Taiyuan (also known as the Dragon City), China, from October 12, 2018 to October 14, 2018. The workshop is organized by the Research Center for Philosophy of Science and Technology of Shanxi University.

The meaning of the wave function has been a hot topic of debate since the early days of quantum mechanics. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in this long-standing question. Is the wave function ontic, directly representing a state of reality, or epistemic, merely representing a state of incomplete knowledge, or something else? If the wave function is not ontic, then what, if any, is the underlying state of reality? If the wave function is indeed ontic, then what physical state does it represent? And exactly what is the ontology of quantum mechanics?

In his book “The Meaning of the Wave Function: In Search of the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics” (CUP, 2017), Gao proposed a promising new way to solve these deep questions, and he also suggested a novel realist interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. The aim of this workshop is to bring together leading experts in the field in order to discuss and evaluate Gao’s approach to quantum mechanics, draw both connections and differences between his approach and other approaches, promote collaborations, and envision new objectives for future research.

Confirmed Speakers

Steve Adler, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA (video talk)

Valia Allori, Northern Illinois University, USA

Angelo Bassi, University of Trieste, Italy

Lajos Diósi, Wigner Research Center for Physics, Hungary

Michael Esfeld, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland (video talk)

Shan Gao, Shanxi University, China

Adrian Kent, University of Cambridge, UK (video talk)

Peter J. Lewis, Dartmouth College, USA

Tim Maudlin, New York University, USA

Dean Rickles, University of Sydney, Australia (video talk)

Lev Vaidman, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Local Organizers:

Jie Yin, Shanxi University

Shan Gao, Shanxi University

Kaining Wang, Shanxi University

Dan Zhao, Shanxi University

Dexin Li,  Shanxi University

Xuechuan Wang, Shanxi University

Yanyan Wang, Shanxi University

If you would like to attend the workshop, please contact Prof. Shan Gao by email ([email protected]). We shall be able to cover the accommodation expenses of a few more abroad participants. We look forward to seeing you at the workshop in Taiyuan!